Parging/prettying Up A Wood Foundation Covered With Membrane

Hi there.

Have a HO that just had an addition repaired. It's a PT wood floor on concrete posts. The floor sill plate is supporting the brick. (?) ... anyway, it's covered in some tar/ice-shield membrane, and it's visible above grade for about 4". HO wants to pretty it up.

I was thinking to parge it. I was thinking some cement board (screwed through the sill (the membrane is gooey enough to re-seal around the screws), followed by some galv lath, cement/parge over top of that. The parging would extend below grade to the base of the wood, and extend up to just below the brick.

Any pitfalls I should be concerned about here? This is in Ottawa so freeze/thaw is my biggest concern. I may just tell him, that this is the best it's going to get, which isnt much better than looking at an ugly ice-sheild membrane...

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Re:
Parging/prettying Up A Wood Foundation Covered With Membrane

Mike, you can cover that with Durock cement board. There are special screws for it. Then parge with their base coat for stucco. This is waterproof and can be used as a finished product. May need two coats.

The product you want mixes with water only.

They also have the tape for the joints. Look up "Durock" for a distributor in your area.

I just did this on my current project. Works awesome. I'll look at the bag tomorrow and post the specs on what I used.

Re:
Parging/prettying Up A Wood Foundation Covered With Membrane

Thanks John. I'm doing it tomorrow, I'm going to put parging on the exterior - after I put the and mesh and duroc cement. It's mostly going to be underground - only about 4" showing, and it would look out of place if it were anything other than 'parging grey'

I'll let you know how it goes. I have a tendency to put parging on too thick and then it cracks... so I'll be careful. Thanks for the pointers.

Re:
Parging/prettying Up A Wood Foundation Covered With Membrane

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbcontracting

Thanks John. I'm doing it tomorrow, I'm going to put parging on the exterior - after I put the and mesh and duroc cement. It's mostly going to be underground - only about 4" showing, and it would look out of place if it were anything other than 'parging grey'

I'll let you know how it goes. I have a tendency to put parging on too thick and then it cracks... so I'll be careful. Thanks for the pointers.

Re:
Parging/prettying Up A Wood Foundation Covered With Membrane

It turned out well.

... trying to remember. ;-)

I screwed the cement board to the wood through the membrane, and then used a stucco base coat, It wasn't durock, but a local company that mfr's their own stuff... I used a fibreglass stucco mesh, one quick skim coat, stick the mesh in, and then push it in.

After that, I put a thin coat of parging over it. Looked great, you'd never know there was wood underneath there, and I'm pretty hopeful it will last over the winter/s.

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